Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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780. To ask the Minister for Health if the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, NICE, guidelines are still the agreed protocols in place for medical management of coeliac disease diagnosis; if so, if there are audit data available on compliance with this best practice approach; and if there are agreed training programmes in place for medical professionals to follow these guidelines. [13065/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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781. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to develop a national screening programme for coeliac disease, in view of the potential positive impact that proper diagnosis can have on both the patient and the health service given that potentially one third of persons with coeliac disease have not been diagnosed. [13066/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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782. To ask the Minister for Health if a national screening programme is not under consideration, if a targeted programme will be considered in view of the fact that the likelihood of having coeliac rises to one in ten for blood relatives of those with a positive diagnosis [13067/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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785. To ask the Minister for Health if consideration has been given to an assessment of the long-term value to the health service of establishing a national screening service for coeliac disease for all children (details supplied). [13070/17]

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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808. To ask the Minister for Health his plans to develop a national coeliac disease register to identify external contributing factors or to establish possible causation in diagnosis, in addition to any regional variations in the figures for testing, diagnosis and post-diagnosis supports based on availability of financial or medical resources (details supplied). [13201/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 780 to 782, inclusive, 785 and 808 together.

The UK NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) guidelines are the current guidelines in use in Ireland for coeliac disease diagnosis and management. This disease is included in the undergraduate and postgraduate medical training curricula.

Currently, screening for coeliac disease is not routinely carried out. The blood test required is reasonably, but not completely, accurate. This means that routinely screening the entire population could produce a high number of false-positive results. In other words, people would be misdiagnosed as having coeliac disease when they did not have it. Therefore, screening for coeliac disease is usually only recommended for people who are experiencing symptoms of the condition or those with known risk factors for the condition, such as having a family history of the disease.

Those who are offered serological testing for coeliac disease should include first degree relatives of people with coeliac disease. A positive blood test result may give an indication of coeliac disease, but definitive diagnosis requires an endoscopic examination to obtain a biopsy of the small bowel. The diagnosis and treatment of coeliac disease is primarily managed by GPs who are encouraged to follow the NICE UK guidelines in the course of their practice. There is currently no national register of people with coeliac disease in Ireland.

On the question of targeted screening, my Department is aware that the international scientific literature, including a review against the criteria of the UK National Screening Committee, does not support the introduction of such a screening programme.